ReCAST has gone through a pretty radical transition in the past year. We hired an administrative assistant, added two new elders to the board, hired a director for our children’s ministry, and brought on a corporate worship director. In that same period of time we revised our bylaws, sent out our first international missionaries, and God allowed us to bank about $100k toward our building.
It has been an amazing journey and yet one component remained as a loose end. When we first started ReCAST church seven years ago we had two teens and that was it. Over the years we have had a variety of programs for teens and there have been some high points and some low points. We currently have over 30 middle school and high school students who call ReCAST church their church family. And we set out about a year ago to find someone to direct that ministry.
As of last week, this need has been filled and we are pleased to welcome Nathan Douglas to our team. So many good things begin at a coffee shop and a man one day about 6 months ago overheard a conversation between me and another pastor about our search for a youth director. This young man introduced himself and let me know about Young Life and their church partnership program. He put me in contact with the area director for Young Life and we met and went over the arrangement. The partnership allows both our church and young life to share one director who both works in the High School for Young Life and in the church for ReCAST for a total of 40 hours. From my perspective this sounded immediately like a win-win. We would not only get a youth director, but we would get an outreach oriented youth director!
Young Life provided us with the name of an individual who was interested in moving to the area to work with Young Life. We interviewed him offered him the position . . . And he declined. His passion is more oriented toward working with college students at WMU. with the school year approaching I was doubtful that we would find someone in time to kick off this new school year.
But then, the director called again and let me know he had found another candidate. But this candidate was not just someone willing to come work in Mattawan, he has already been working with Young Life in Mattawan for the past two years while he was finishing his degree at WMU!
And now just a few short weeks later, Nathan Douglas has his first week under his belt at ReCAST and is getting ready to kick off our middle school and high school ministries for the Fall! I am in awe of God’s timing.
I am very excited about working with Nathan. I am confident that God will do some amazing things through him in Mattawan. God has done some amazing things to bring together a great staff at ReCAST Church! Welcome aboard, Nathan!
